Big and Little News Wednesday

Normally on Wednesdays, I update all y’all about my current writing projects. Well, I don’t have any updates to share. Sorry. Been a busy week in the real world and when I did have free time, I was a little too wiped to add anything to my writing projects. I did log some time on the beta for Heroes of the Storm, but that’s neither here nor there.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have writing-related news. I’ve got some news to share, and one of them is pretty big.

Let’s get the smaller news item out of the way first, though.

Gauntlet Goes to Prom and Kynetic: On Target Now Available on the Nook!

When I first published Gauntlet Goes to Prom and Kynetic: On Target, they were exclusively available for the Kindle. That’s because they were both enrolled originally in the KDP Select program, which basically locked me into a non-compete clause. Well, the enrollment period has ended for both books, so now, they’re both available on the Nook. If you’ve got a Nook and you’ve been waiting to see what happened in those stories, now’s your chance!

[bctt tweet=”Author @JohnWOtte has just released two novellas for the Nook. Check them out!” via=”no”]

But now, here’s the really big news:

Failstate Has Been Spotted in a Bookstore!

About a month ago, Steve Laube, the owner of Enclave Publishing, let us authors in on a really cool development: he convinced the folks at LifeWay to carry the Fall 2014 line of books in their stores. Well, not all of the stores. Rather, one copy of each book would be sent to one hundred LifeWay stores across the country. In the initial e-mail, we were warned that it may take a few weeks for the books to get to the individual stores and even then, there was no guarantee that the store we went to would be one of the hundred, and even if it was, there was always the chance that someone would have bought the only copy an hour before we got there.

Well, earlier today, I was out and about and I spotted a LifeWay store. And I thought I might as well go check it out. Now I knew that if Failstate: Nemesis was in there at all, it’d be back in the Young Adult section. So I maneuvered around the outside edge of the store and came around the shelves into the fiction section. My eyes roamed over the shelves and I spotted Donita K. Paul’s books. If the book was there (it’s not going to be there), it’d be right there next to…

Holy cow. There it was. Failstate: Nemesis, on a bookstore shelf. And I got to see it with my own eyes.

Needless to say, I was really excited about finding it there, but it got me to thinking. Failstate very well could be in a LifeWay store near you. And while I took a picture with my cheap flip phone, I want to see more pictures of Failstate out in the wild.

So I have a favor to ask all of you. Join me in the Great Failstate Hunt of 2015.

Here are your instructions:

1. Find your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman LifeWay store.
2. Go to said local LifeWay store and head for the Young Adult book section.
3. If they have a copy of Failstate: Nemesis on the shelf, take a picture of it either on the shelf or in your lovely hands.
4. E-mail me said picture: john@johnwotte.com

Now there’s an additional step that I would ask you to take, depending on if you find a copy of the book or not: Either purchase the copy that you found OR go to the service desk and order a copy to be delivered to that store.

Now that may seem like a pretty selfish request for me to make of all of you and, I have to admit, I’m a little uncomfortable making it. But here’s why I’m asking you to do this: this whole Enclave Publishing in LifeWay business is an experiment on the part of LifeWay. This may not only be the first time these books will be in LifeWay, they may also be the last time they’ll be in LifeWay if they don’t sell well.

That’s why I’m asking you to help show there’s an audience for these books. Even if you’ve purchased a copy of Failstate: Nemesis in the past, please go out and buy another one to give as a gift to a friend or donate to your church library or give away on your blog. You can even request the other copies of the Failstate series while you’re at it.

Can you please help me by participating in the Great Failstate Hunt of 2015? Help me spread the word and then send me sightings of my book in the wild!

[bctt tweet=”Join the Great Failstate Hunt of 2015! He’s in the wild and we need help tracking him down!”]